Wednesday, August 22, 2007

SA Farmers and Zimbabweans

The fallout in Zimbabwe has moved its people to desperate measures. While our President Mbeki props up President Mugabe, thousands of Zimbabweans are crossing into South Africa's Limpopo Province looking for food and work.

This is of course a great concern for absolutely xenophobic South Africans. Now comes word from Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula that farmers, the vast majority of them white, can arrest illegal immigrants on their farms.

Huh?

Have we just gone absolutely insane in South Africa? Or should I ask a different question? Has the ANC-led government gone off their f*cking rocker?

I mean damn, where is the sense in propping up the dictator Mugabe in Zimbabwe, but punishing Zimbabweans who are running for their lives?

I can't understand it bra Derek. Just this morning I listened to the venerable Archbishop Desmond Tutu tell the BBC that South Africa has dropped the human rights ball when it comes to putting pressure on the military junta in Burma. Our leaders are doing to Burma exactly what the US did to South Africa under apartheid.


Supporting the junta in Burma is akin to supporting apartheid in the previous era. What the hell is the matter with us?

What did we fight for in South Africa? Are we not supposed to be a beacon for human rights on the continent and elsewhere? This can't be right. Can it?

White farmers were the vanguard of apartheid. These are the same f*ckers who are now being empowered to arrest illegal immigrants. How will the police, and our courts, ensure that the basic rights accorded to all under our constitution is not just tossed aside by these farmers?

We stand at a critical juncture in our post-apartheid history. The collapse of Zimbabwe will move our region toward greater instability and the decision to punish the victims is a disgrace.

If we need to empower the farmers to arrest Black folk why not send them to arrest Mugabe right now? It is long overdue. Mugabe is not one of us anymore. So why should we support him like he is!

Damn.

We should be working to free Zimbabwe and not to imprison its citizens in South Africa. This should be our priority! After all what the f*ck is ubuntu worth if we can't even live up to being African?

2 comments:

Dade Cariaga said...

Thanks for educating me on this important issue. If the working people of this world could ever unite...

Until then, voices of reason are relegated to "screaming in the wilderness."

Good luck, brother!

Dade

Ridwan said...

You are absolutely right Dade. The Council of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) went to Zimbabwe to stand with their counterparts there.

They were sent back on two occasions by the Mugabe government.

COSATU is part of the ANC-led government in South Africa but a rift is growing about the course that is being taken on Zim and Burma, among others.

The new leaders have become too comfortable with their neo-liberal aspirations. In the wake they have forgotten the people on the ground, workers and the unemployed masses alike.

We need, like you say, to stand together and confront a problem that is not unique to South Africa or Zimbabwe.

Trust you are well brother.

Peace,
Ridwan